AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)- No. 1 Auburn Basketball rolled over Alabama, 100-81, inside Auburn Arena. With the win, Auburn moves to 21-1 on the season and 9-0 in league play. This is the third time that Auburn has scored 100 points in a game against Alabama.
“It was the sum of our parts. Once again,” head coach Bruce Pearl said. “ I've always played 9 or 10 guys in double digit minutes. [Other team's] don't play them like we do and don't develop them like we do.”
Alabama had a 14 point deficit coming out of the halftime break. Within six minutes of the restart, Alabama had cut the lead to just two. Pearl decided to do two things. Go to his bench and switch to a zone defense.
“We played the bench. The bench came in. That was the difference,” Pearl said. “We went zone and we could keep them in front of us. The zone slowed them down.”’’
Six minutes after Alabama cut the lead to two, Auburn had built the lead back to 16. The bench scored 10 of those points along the run. Wendell Green Jr. accounted for seven of those points.
Green Jr. was named to the Bob Cousy award watch list on Monday. On Tuesday, the sophomore posted a season high in points with 23 off the bench. Green also posted eight rebounds and six assists in the win.
“[Wendell Green Jr.] has played great against Bama twice,” Pearl said. “[Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford] are both first team all conference in the preseason and none of our guards were on the team. I think Wendell was excited about playing tonight.”
In the two games against Alabama this season, Green has scored 41 points, added 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Green is just one part of a “sum of parts” that make this Auburn team click.
“That is the reason why we are so good,” said sophomore Walker Kessler. “That is why we win. When we go to the bench there is no drop off.”
Auburn’s bench accounted for 44 of Auburn’s 100 points in the win.
Starting center Walker Kessler turned in his eighth double-double of the season and ninth of his career in the win. Kessler posted 14 points and 12 rebounds. The sophomore was two blocks shy of his second triple-double of the season.
“Eight blocks, four steals and 12 rebounds. Just an unbelievable impact,” Pearl said.
Jabari Smith posted 11 points in the first and 17 in total. The freshman added five rebounds, a block and a steal to his statline. Smith has now scored in double figures in all but three games this season.
Green, Kessler, Smith and the rest of the Tigers return to action on Feb. 5 in Athens, Georgia when Auburn takes on unranked Georgia. Tipoff is scheduled for noon CST and will be aired on the SEC Network
